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So who is going to end up switching teams as the trade deadline looms?

No, not Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline.

There’s also a countdown to a massive game of musical chairs going on behind the scenes at this year’s Tim Hortons Brier.

And if you think the rumor mill gets a little out of control at this time of year in hockey, you ought to try it every fourth year in curling.

The scramble for new parters for the next Olympic quadrennial won’t include Brad Jacobs’ Sochi gold medal team from Sault Ste. Marie, which is expected to make a triumphant visit here this week.

But it’s going to be a mad scramble which Nolan Thiessen, who is likely to be involved, figures will all start going down at The National $100,000 Grand Slam next week in Fort McMurray.

“There’s lots of stuff out there,” said Thiessen, the Edmonton curler who won a Brier and world championship with Kevin Koe in 2010.

“Ben Hebert told me the other day he’s heard rumors that he’s playing with nine different players. So he said it’s going to be a 10-man team he’s going to play on,” laughed Thiessen of the lead from Kevin Martin’s team.

“But they are all good players so he said ‘I’ll at least be on a good team.’ ”

“There’s a lot of talk of changes here. I kinda joked around saying we should all sit around in a room and everyone should say whether they are curling next year and then we can all have a draft or something.

“There probably will be lots of conversations with lots of teams going forward. It’s become a four-year process and it’s the end of the Olympic run and probably time for some changes out there,” added Thiessen.

“It’s quite comical when you hear some of the rumors. Some of them are so silly,” said Koe, who has heard the report that he’s keeping lead Thiessen and picking up Martin’s front end of Marc Kennedy and Hebert, a rumor that retiring Koe second Carter Rycroft thinks is believable.

“Obviously it’s well known Carter is quitting,” said Koe.

“But we’re taking the attitude we’ll worry about it after this week and go from there. I imagine you’ll start to see some things start to shake out once this event is over.”

John Morris, who quit Martin’s Olympic gold medal team at the end of last season and hooked up with Jim Cotter’s B.C. bunch, is a central figure in many of the rumors.

One has him reuniting with Kennedy and Hebert from the Olympic gold medal team on which he played third.

One has Morris moving back to Ottawa to try represent Ontario again. He made it to the final of the 2002 Brier, losing the final to Randy Ferbey of Alberta.

Another version of that has him hooking up with Brent Laing and Craig Saville from Glenn Howard’s team. Both curled with Morris when he came out of Ontario and lost the Brier final to Randy Ferbey in 2002.

A twist to all this is while Martin, Howard and Jeff Stoughton can’t see themselves going through another four-year Olympic cycle, all have expressed interest in curling next year, especially Stoughton if he wins this and gets to be the skip of the first Team Canada to play in a Brier next year.

Morris isn’t denying he has decisions to make, but he says this isn’t the week to be even thinking about them because of the Team Canada factor and more.

“No clue,” said Morris. “Honest to God. We have not even sat down and discussed next year one bit. It’s not worth it. Why focus on the future when we need to be focused on today?

“The only focus we have right now is on winning this Brier. If we happen to win this Brier then our focus is going to be on the world championships.

“So the Brier this week and hopefully the world championships in April,” said Morris who is here skipping Jim Cotter’s B.C. team to tie dad Earle’s record of playing for three provinces in a Brier.

Not all the top teams other than Jacobs are changing partners.

“We are, I’d say 90% set for the next four years,” said Newfoundland’s 2006 Olympic gold medal winner Brad Gushue of his team of Brett Gallant, Adam Casey and Geoff Walker.

But Gushue says there’s definitely stuff going on.

“Oh, absolutely. Everybody is calling and talking and being aware of going on. It’s the nature of what happens after the Olympics and I would say after Fort McMurray you’ll start to hear all the names of all the teams coming out. I think next week in Fort McMurray there are going to be a lot of back-room conversations trying to form teams and see what everybody is doing.”

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